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Labour conference begins

20/09/2008

The Labour conference begins today following fierce speculation about Gordon Brown's future as party leader.

Three large protests against Labour – on Iraq, public sector and postal workers - will hit Manchester while delegates congregate in the secure zone, and an alternate far-left conference is taking place down the road, tempting veteran Labour left-wingers like Tony Benn and Jeremy Corbyn away from the main event.

Apart from that, there are some specific focal points to look out for.

Charles Clarke will be delivering the Unlock Democracy lecture on Sunday. There remains a chance he'll make further comments along the lines of his New Statesman article telling Mr Brown to step down "with honour".

Mr Clarke pops up again on Monday to go head to head with journalist Andrew Gilligan at a debate entitled 'Who calls the shots – politicians or journalists?' Mr Gilligan was the journalist blamed by the Hutton inquiry for being inaccurate in his Iraq war reports but he is also credited with leading the campaign against Ken Livingstone's attempts to be re-elected as Labour mayor of London.

Later in the day, David Miliband makes his speech to the main conference hall on foreign policy. Pundits will be analysing his words with a political decoder to spot any hidden leadership pitch.

There's a strong panel for the debate on how Labour can win the next election, featuring education secretary Ed Balls, one of Mr Brown's most loyal lieutenants, health secretary Alan Johnson, consistently a highly-rated leadership contender, Ken Livingstone and Jon Cruddas, the backbench left-winger who retains tremendous popularity within the party.

Then on Tuesday, it is time for Mr Brown's make or break speech to the conference. There are reports the speech was finalised a month ago.

Things are about as bright for Mr Brown as he could possibly have hoped them to be at this stage. The drip feed of briefings, letters and resignations over his leadership appears to have subsided. Furthermore, his part in the Lloyds TSB – HBOS merger has been widely praised, and there are reports he may be finalising another one between EDF and British Energy.